Daily Logs

Another day rolling along heading steadily west. Australian boat Emma Cora who is just ahead of us reported seeing and speaking to an Indonesian ship - we have seen nothing but must remember that there maybe other vessels out here. Altair has fixed her cooker so they are not condemned to a diet of cold tinned tuna after all! We haven't changed our clock since Panama so it is now staying light much later. A beautiful moon, almost full, rises behind us just after sunset and sets infront of us just before sunrise.. read more...

We have really gotten lazy. We have the twin head sails up, we do not trim them(can not do much) all we have to do is keep the wind behind the boat in the right direction which is about 30 degrees to either side of the stern. We do not change sail plans at night because this plan will take a lot of wind and it can be reefed by furling (rolling up partially). We have literally not changed anything in 24 hours. That is not uncommon in long passages in trade wind routes. Set the sail and ride into the sunset. During the day we could probably get a little more speed out of our asymmetrical spinnaker but it is a sail change that would not add that much. Our daily distance sailed has been comparable to when we were working harder using the asymmetrical spinnaker in the day and changing at. read more...

The asymmetric is back out and flying again - Yea!, giving us 8 knots of speed in 16 knots of breeze.The debate continues over when and if to gybe to head back north as currently the wind is leading us further south...The debate has been being discussed for the last 4 days!Helen's Thai coconut chicken curry on the menu tonight followed by more chocolate brownies for desert :)After a day of rest on Sunday, LD made a comeback in todays Owl LD Quiz scoring 5 out of 8 (Owl only managed 1 1/2.. for a change, its usually us!)I think the question asking the amount of power needed for the flux capacitor in the Back to the Future Delorian got them! Totals now stand at 15 1/2 Owl and 15 to LD.Between writing this and posting we have blown the Asymetric, yes yes, I know it only managed less than 10. read more...

Now we are making our way towards one of our penultimate waypoints of this trip. The wind dropped a bit earlier so we shook out reef 3 to reef 2. Within an hour a squall hit and pushed the wind up to 25 knots, it's well behind though so the apparent wind was much lower. Pushed us in our direction pretty well though at up to 9.5 knots.After not having any squalls for some days it's a bit of a surprise to now get one, apparently a lot around today, oh well. Still looking like tomorrow Tuesday 14th sometime in the afternoon, that will be good!. read more...

After a week or so in Grenada sight seeing and a little rum (some might say more than a little! ) first Gerard then Peter head back to the UK.Many thanks to Paul and Susie for letting us share their adventure and good look on the last part of the circumnavigation up to St Lucia. Firefly has looked after us well and a great yacht to sail on.Alsocongratulations , good luck and fair winds to all on the World ARC for the rest of the rally and trips back to their home ports.Peter. read more...

I got a question or two on my safety post. So here is more information. The whole maritime safety and rescue system is coordinated thru what is called GMDSS( global maritime distress system).There arelayers of agencies and international agreements concerning shipping and maritime affairs. In the United States the Coast Guard plays a big role in the whole game. In the event of a Mayday ( emergency with danger of injury or loss of life, not just out of beer or gas) the boater would have the options of:1. Activation of the EPIRB. This would send out an emergency distress or Mayday signal to orbiting satellites. There are multiple satellites which can triangulate the signals to pin point a position on the EPIRB?Most EPIRB these days have a built in GPS.THE EPIRB would then be able to send. read more...

We are truly replete! After a mid Pacific celebration breakfast cracking out the Branston beans no less, bacon, eggs, potatoes and bread the boat is a little lighter, but we are carrying our full bellys off for a nap.Its official: we have less than 1500 miles to go to the Marquesas.Woop Woop! We still have the full genoa and reefed main with 18 - 22 knots of wind, making 7 - 8 knots, although it was quite a bit livlier overnight with heavy rain squalls and 27 knots on Jacks watch.It seems crazy that at 1500 miles from land yesterday we were within 8 miles of 3 other boats.We had Altair, Sandvita and Ocean Bird for company and can see Sandvita and Taistealai on the horizon this morning.Its a happy feeling to have company and buddies we can chat to on the radio.We are still clearing. read more...

We considered pulling the main up again yesterday afternoon, and almost immediately the wind picked up to over 20 knots again. We had a quick overnight sail instead. Less current now though, only between 0.5 and 1 knot with us, but still making good progress.This morning we figured the wind would start to drop off, and by noon we had taken the main up again, albeit with three reefs. It's kept our average above 7 knots and not unduly pushing the boat around.. read more...

Good progress again today helped by the favourable current.We have been running with main and poled out yankee wing and wing and also staysail set.Quite a lot of cloud and a few spits of rain,but we managed to dodge the squalls - so far.Sometimes a big sea though so we felt we had enough sail.Many of the boats have already passed half way (hopefully we should get to that point in a couple of days), but Like a Breeze is way out in front.We seemed to lose Skyelark part way through the evening sched (she was net controller) hopefully it was just a problem with he SSB - they did say it was playing up.. read more...

Its official, we've fallen off the bottom of chart 4618 and are now onto the chart that has the Marquesas on it!Its feels like we are making progress.Even though we have had wind shifts pushing us further south overnight we should make halfway by overnight tonight, which feels monumental.We still have good wind currently: 18 - 20 knots making 7 - 8 knots still with one reef in the main and the full genoa.No fish to report yet sadly, but we still have some fresh food left as well as our freezer and dry stocks to keep us going.We are eeking out the tomatoes - 7 left!,Probably no 16 on the takeout menu tonight: prawn noodles as we are trying to keep some variety in our dinners. Chicken and tomato pasta last night and mince and veg the night before (spot the brits - its 30 degrees and 66%. read more...

Hi to allThe plan was to collect the new alternator Tuesday and install it on Wednesday.Tuesday.Collect new alternator from Interline in Phillipsburg.Completed.Great shipping company. $10 shipping, $7.50 optional insurance. From Miami.During day collected Joyce's iPad after screen replaced I had fallen into 1m of sea with it in a backpack.---Left mine in repairers as torrential rain going ashore got it wet, inside a waterproof case inside a rucksack.Home button not working.Might get a new one under warranty.Whilst in Phillipsburg went looking to find a company to make a new high pressure hose for the watermaker.Finally found them in Cole Bay and had new hose made.FKG are recommended but not cheap.Wednesday.Install new alternator. Failed, couldn't swap the new single pulley for the wanted. read more...

Since last night we have had our parasailor up and this is enabling us to get a much better angle on our destination with these ESE winds.Regrettably, the promised winds from 120-130 degrees have not really materialized and the wind direction is tending to be variable from 90-110 degrees. Seas remain rolly but are down a little from the last few days enabling some domestic activities this morning, including bread making.With the additional miles we had to do at the beginning of the leg to get down to the trade winds, we are now past half way and have just over 1500 nautical miles to go. For those from the east coast of the USA who make the annual trek to the Caribbean, this distance starts to feel familiar and not so daunting.We have caught no fish aboard Misto so far on this leg - a. read more...

We certainly have a lot of positive current with us. In the last 24 hours we did 179 miles through the water but 205 over the ground. That shows we had 26 minutes miles worth of current with us, pretty useful.On of our sister boats has just advised that they are now experiencing current against them, they are approx 350 miles ahead of us, so we have that to look forward to.Depending on what happens with current etc we still hope to arrive sometime on Tuesday.From later today we will be putting our AIS in silent mode and may turn off our yellowbrick tracker. Being off the coast of both Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago is unfortunately a hot spot for piracy. We need to be very wary of unusual vessels.. read more...

Sally Shafer asked about our safety measures. A lot of money is spent on things that you hope you will never use. I will try to organize this post a little.Flares: We have a whole set of flares which we will keep safe and dry but hope to never use. We have red , white, parachute and smoke (orange) signalsPFD: Personal Flotation Device. We have automatic PFDs. Each has a strobe light, signaling mirror, whistle, spray hood and crotch strap. The spray hood is something most people are not familiar with. It is a hood that you can pull over your head so spray blowing into your face does not drown you. I made ours several years ago for our first Caribbean 1500. I made them out of reflective material on the back and sides and clear plastic in the front. The plastic is attached with Velcro so if. read more...

I am on watch from midnight to 3 a.m. It is a little lighter on wind tonight. I have about 7 knots of wind and am doing about 6 knots of boat speed. We have a full or nearly full moon. It is amazing how well you can see with a full moon. Your eyes get adjusted and you can see much better than you think. My mind is in neutral most of the time. By that, I mean that I try not to calculate everything about our progress and when we will arrive. I am just taking it a day at a time. Doing the radio call twice a day adds a little structure and responsibility. I am trying to study celestial navigation but by the time I have set up my fishing gear in the morning, had my coffee and checked my email, half the day is gone. That sort of sounds like how people describe retirement. I think Judy sent me. read more...

Not only am I not catching any fish, Sam and I got our lines twisted in a rats' nest late last night. I am beginning to try to untangle them today. Fishing lines can start to twist in the water as they are pulled through. As the boat continues the lines continue to twist on each other. It will be a good task for me today. 3/11/17 update continuation 9°. 57 ' south. 108°. 06 ' west On the fishing line above, I ended up cutting my hooks off and pulling my line out of the twisted other line. Sam was not as lucky. He just trashed his line and did not fish any more. I kept a line out with two hooks and two flying fish as bait. No luck at all. I did check the rice and bean supply and we are good even if I never catch a fish. I have ordered some more lures and supplies. The fish I am not. read more...

Another flock of flying fish on the deck this morning.Decided to ring the changes and switch to poled out yankee wing and wing with the main (instead of all sails the same side) as seem to be heading south of the great circle route.Of course with the downwind rig we are heading slightly north of it.According to the weather gurus it's best to stay between 10 deg and 11 deg South so I guess we can manage that.Made some bread.Timshel's trivia this evening was about the Pacific Ocean - the largest body of water in the world and equal in volume to the moon and it contains 25,000 islands!Also Captain Cook who circumnavigated in both directions and came from Whitby.. read more...

Round 2 of our quiz with Owl yesterday over the radio. This time we had to use the SSB as we have spread out a bit and they were too far away to be reached on the VHF. After another day of 20-24 knot winds it provided a welcome bit of fun to distract us from the wind and waves. Other than that, our only other bit of excitement was seeing how long Hels could balance a magdalena on her knee for (which turned out to be quite a long time actually). We enjoyed a chat with another yacht that we sailed close too, on their way to the Marquesas overnight, and it was nice to have a little company and see their navigation lights on the horizon after nearly 10 days from land. We were also joined by a brown footed boobie for a few hours, who perched on the cross trees and quickly rekindled our hatred. read more...

The wind built and so did the swell, so we figured that overnight no mainsail would be a good option. Less pressure on the boat etc, rudder, ourselves. Peaked at about 28 knots and we made great progress over 200 miles noon to noon. The wind has dropped at the moment, not sure if it will pick up again, so sailing very conservatively at present. Looking like a Tuesday arrival if we can keep averaging 7.5 knots. The wind has also gone more to the east so the apparent wind is now less. So maybe put some mainsail up later, or early tomorrow.. read more...

We have good consistent winds for sailing with which you get waves. Our wind is from the southeast which gives us waves and swells from the southeast. The seas come to our boat from the back left corner. That is called quartering seas, i.e., from the back corner of the boat. This gives us a gentle roll. The boat rocks from side to side as the wave goes under the back of the boat lifting the boat from side to side. The swells have a long period of probably 8-10 seconds. The longer the period the gentler the ride. We are also sailing down wind which is more gentle. There is a saying of "gentlemen sail down wind" for what that is worth. It does make a big difference. Last night it was fairly rolling while we were having dinner. I turned the boat more downwind for a more gentle ride while we. read more...

So tonight is information on some of our systems. Our boat has an electrical system. It has 4 house batteries which run the "household". These are 12 volt AGM batteries which are 200 amp/hour each. You can generally only use the batteries from 85% charge down to about 60% charge. So the 4 batteries hold 800amphours but you can only effectively use about 30%. Filling batteries to 100% charge is not effective. The amount of energy going into a battery slows as it fills so it would take a long time to get the last 15% into the batteries. It is hard on batteries if you take them too low so to increase the life of the batteries you buy more amphours than you need and then use the easiest portion to take out and replace. We also have a start battery for the engine and for the generator. To. read more...

It has been a fine day. My weather prediction for possible rain was in error. The wind has held up nicely. Our pace has held up. The fish have not cooperated well at all. Sam has one line out. I have one line out with two flying fish as bait. I was thinking that natural bait skimming along the surface would attract some attention. I still have a few hours and the best fishing is at sunrise and sunset. I have been shut out for 8 days. We do not adjust our speed for the best trolling speed. We just sail along as fast as we can. The fish will just have to catch up with me. One boat cleaned 36 flying fish carcasses off their deck this morning. You would think something was chasing them. I have spent most of the day studying a course book from Power Squadron on celestial navigation. I am a. read more...

Still sailing across an empty sea, broad reach, white sails.Wind up and down a bit, rain at night but sunny day.Looked up the great circle course on the chart plotter, we do dip down below 10 deg S, would do it on he paper chart but we only have a Mercator projection.The interesting thing about the paper charts is that there are lines of magnetic variation marked as it changes as you go across the chart.At the moment we're at about 8deg 50' East, quite a contrast to the 15 deg West the other side of Panama and the Caribbean.In the UK the Variation has declined over the years we've head a boat from 8deg W down to virtually nothing so I guess it will go East there soon.Steve's trivia for today concerned Joshua Slocum sailing across the Pacific in the Spray, and meeting the widow of Robert. read more...

I am tired of not catching fish. There were three moderate sized flying fish on the deck this morning so I decided to put them to good use. I have some wire for fishing leaders (hand made). The problem with fresh fish as bait is keeping them on the line. People who know what they are doing will salt dry their bait fish to harden them up so they stay on better. I passed a wire thru the length of the fish, attached a large hook on the end of the wire, then pulled the hook back into the fish. I then wrapped the wire around the fish several times to hold it. I even passed the wire around the wings to try to make them stand out naturally. I did a second bait fish and attached it to be behind the first fish by about 12 feet. I am hoping that they will stay on and be attractive to something.. read more...

I have the 6-10 a.m. watch for now. It is a slightly cool morning with a 10-12 knot southeast wind, from 120 degrees. I just remembered that I should explain wind direction. The saying to remember is “wind is from where she blows, current is to where she goes”. So a southeast wind is coming from the southeast. We are headed at 260 degrees which would be called west southwest. Directly west is 270 degrees and we are headed a little south of that but still more west. If we had a favorable current, that is carrying us to our destination, it would be called a westsouthwest current. It is not as confusing as I have made it. We have good weather information but that is for the whole big area. I try to figure out what we are having locally. We have high cirrus clouds above us. Cirrus clouds are. read more...

Well we have established a reputation that is going to be hard to beat. During our roll call, at the end we discuss anything else of interest to anyone in the fleet. Tonight a boat named Zeeland offered thanks to Lexington for the bl**j** that fixed his generator. Since all ages may read this, I left out 4 letters. As it turned out he had a problem with his generator. He thought that it would get hot when his boat was heeled (tilted to the side by wind). Often people will offer possible things to try to fix the problem. I had suggested a few things to try. I suggested he use his asymmetrical spinnaker which would not heel the boat that much. I also suggested that he clean out his raw water strainer ( straining sea water that is pumped into the boat to cool the generator) and if there was. read more...

Long ago and far from my present location a young whitewater paddler “Dandy Don Spangler” taught me the virtues of a simple meal of “beans and cornbread”. Tonight we enjoyed the same and toasted our friend Don for making this meal possible. Ann “looked” the beans a couple days ago. Let them soak them under my bunk for a day or so, pressure cooked them with a ham hock Jim Dinger cut up and tonight we dined on them with stovetop cornpone (cornbread). Thanks “Dandy Don”. read more...

We are on the longest sailing leg of our sail around the world. We left the Galapagos on March 01. We had good sailing for the first few hours as we made our way South of the Equator. Once we left the Galapagos heading towards a latitude of 10S we ran out of wind to power the sailboat. The water was pretty much like a lake and we had to use the diesel auxiliary engine to make the boat move towards our destination, Hiva Oa in the Marquesa Island Group of French Polynesia. From the Galapagos to Hiva Oa the distance is about 3100 Nautical Miles. We motored for several days through the Doldrums. There is not much wind in the Doldrums. Sailors of old avoided this area whenever possible before ships had auxiliary engines. We motored slowly to minimize our fuel usage. Once we reached a Latitude. read more...

Yesterday we knew we were still in the ITCZ or doldrums, lots of big grey clouds, squalls and often very little wind. Then in the afternoon the wind started to stabilise the clouds lifted a bit and we were on our way. By midnight we put the third reef in since the winds were forecast to go further forward and build. By reefing early we made the boats motion and heel much more comfortable and didn't slow down. Earlier in the day I had swapped over from the low speed to the high speed Duogen propellor to endure we didn't break the shaft weak link.We are now averaging 8 - 9 knots over the ground and the current could go as high as plus four, which will give us an average speed of 9-10 knots, that will be impressive if it happens!We saw our fellow Warc boat Golden Dragon on AIS this morning. read more...

We have been at sea for a week now and everyone seems to be having a good sail. A shower of flying fish arrived on the deck, a couple even found there way below - must have flown in through the middle hatch.Steve was net controller and entertained folk with the curious tale of the Ile Clipperton which are north of us.Misto and Zeeland have fixed their generators, is there any in the fleet that have not broken at some point.Laura Dawn brought to our attention a yellow weather buoy right in our path, guess you don't expect anything right out here, but it will be a little while before Timshel gets that far.We had our best 24 hrs - 152 nm logged, and 178 nm made good towards our destination - there is a favourable current.Wind and sea got up by tea time so we reefed a bit for the night -. read more...

Well the wind has finally arrived! After a very slow and gentle motoring start out of Galapagos we are now happy to report that the SE trade winds are in full flow and whooshing us across the Pacific at a good rate of knots. Passing through the remainder of the doldrums the other day gave us a day of rain and overcast skies, but the boat certainly enjoyed the fresh water rinse and it hasn't actually rained on us since Colon in Panama, so can't really complain too much....Speeds have been in the high 8s a lot of the time and a noon run today of 195 miles has been great. Now just reached a third of the way to the Marquesas and we have been promised flap jacks tomorrow from Dan who is on mother watch. It's great sailing out here with full sail including the staysail and a couple of days ago. read more...

Oh yes, we are truly trading!We've been happily sailing now for over 24 hours with 18 - 22 knots of wind with the odd gust of 24, We think we have finally stumbled across the true trade winds.The seas are little livelier but we are making a good 7 - 10 knots, with an occasional 11 with one reef in the mainsail and a full genoa.We have Owl close by (about 15 miles although we cant see them on the horizon they pop up on AIS from time to time) and we whiled away a few happy hours yesterday afternoon playing radio quiz's! They did much better than us with 4 out of 7 correct answers to our 3 and a half! Its good to have company and hopefully we'll get a chance to redeem ourselves in a re-match.The chicken and bacon pasta bows made Jack a very happy chappy yesterday and we are going for no 32. read more...

Today is a landmark of sorts. If our original estimate of 21 days for the passage from the Galapagos to the Marquesas is correct, then at midday today we are 1/3 of the way through.Of course it may be longer due to needing to go so far south in order to find the trade winds.But it's always nice to have something to celebrate on board.Over the last 24 hours we finally feel that we have established ourselves in the SE trade winds, got out of the majority of the squalls, and are able to plot a sort-of direct course to Hiva Oa.We estimate that we have used about 40% of our available engine diesel to get this far and we are hoping that future engine use on this passage will be minimal.Of course, the starboard fuel gauge stopped working as we departed the Galapagos so our strategy has been to. read more...

Another day sailing under blue skies, just the flying fish for company.Still reaching with 3 sails set - main, yankee and staysail, making 6 knots or more most of the time, and so far managed to avoid any more squalls. We slowed down temporarily first thing in the morning (by reefing away the yankee) in order to deploy the shark (towed charger), it gets in a terrible fankle if you try letting it out doing more than 2 or 3 knots.The news on the net was of Arabela managing to fix their engine (starter motor), North managing to fix their generator, someone, (Hanna?) caught 3 fish, but Tulla Mhor spent all day cleaning up diesel from a can that had split.Everyone is much more conversational on this leg, genuinely trying to give helpful advice when a boat reports a problem, and a lot of. read more...

The wind is still being a bit fickle, and lots of squalls! Hopefully b tonight we should be in a steadier trade wind pattern and just about climbing out of the ITCZ. We should also be getting a good push of current, maybe 2.5 to 3 knots if we are lucky. That will help to propel us in our way!. read more...

So it is my watch again. Getting up at 3 sucks but seeing the sunrise is a good reward. We have had a good night with southeast winds 10-14 knots. Our boat speed is high 6's. My guess is the air temperature is 78-80 but that is a guess. All in all, very pleasant. We are sailing great for my boat. We are trying to be conservative and not break stuff but we are usually 6 knots or above. For a 10 hour period during the day yesterday, we averaged 6.1 knots. The hooker is that we are in with a bunch of good boats and good sailors. When I looked at the position report just issued there just a few boats further from the destination than we were. One of those broke their mast and is catching up and another delayed their start to fix a generator problem. When we were motoring a lot at first we. read more...

We get position reports each day emailed to us from World Cruising. Each boat has a locator on it called a Yellow Brick which transmits to the satellite our position at the same time each day. The World Cruising Club then tabulates all the data and sends it out by email to each of the boats. One of the statistics that they keep is called 'velocity made good'. This is the velocity or speed you're making to your target location. For example, when we were heading South and not going very much West then the velocity made good to the Western target would be low. Now that we've been able to turn towards the West our course is directly to target. Therefore all of our progress, i.e., our speed is made towards the target therefore our velocity made good is higher. If you look at the. read more...

Decisions, decisions. We are now down fairly far south and appear to be in for consistent trade winds in the 10-15 range. Now we need to decide how to sail them. Our wind will be about 120 degrees off our bow on a rhumb line course. Right now we are on a beam reach in 10-12 knots of wind but need to adjust our course about 20 to the west. Things get complicated.. as I have been writing this the winds have dropped to 6-8. Go figure! Our choices are: 1. Regular white sails down wind 2. Regular white sails with wing on wing 3. Two head sails, both poles out 4. Asymmetrical spinnaker.We decided that the others would fly the asymmetrical spinnaker that they can do with little effort without my help. I am doing the radio roll call soon. Little effort means that it is already up and furled on a. read more...

We seem to have finally found the trade winds and have a steady 12 - 15 knots of breeze from east south east, making 6 knots with the asymmetric up.The squalls have cleared today, although we had a couple of big ones last night and it is sunny if a little hazy.We've discovered that geckos can swim and the debate of the day is which pasta to have for dinner.Jack has settled on bows.LD: 7th March 16:04. read more...

If having a cold at sea wasn't enough, yesterday I developed a slight migraine. I get maybe one every couple of years, just my luck to get it a sea. I do carry mess and if I take them quickly enough and sleep loads it doesn't affect me too much. In the last 36 hours I've probably slept for at least 24 hours. Just as well there are three of us on board to stand watches. I haven't missed one yet.The wind was pretty fickle overnight but it started picking up this morning and we are now averaging over 6.5 knots speed over the ground. Currently our ETA is 7 days but as we get into more favourable current that may drop a bit!John. read more...